A cushion may be used for a headrest and an armrest of a seat used for an automobile. Such a cushion is composed of a bag-shaped hollow surface material and an inner body covered with the surface material. The inner body is molded in a predetermined shape by passing steam through urethane chips mixed with a water reactive urethane binder and is then covered with the surface material. As a problem of the art, it is not easy to cover the inner body with the surface material so that it takes much time for such a covering work, and as another problem, a wrinkle is produced on the surface material and a seam line of the surface material is curved so that it makes its quality worse.
Such problems can be solved by a prior art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. Heisei 11(1999)-289480 filed by the same assignee as that of the present patent application. This prior art provides a filler material packing system and method for packing a granular or fragmental filler material in a bag-shaped hollow surface material. In this prior art, granules or fragments of scrapped urethane foam and the scrapped surface material to be wasted may be used as the filler material. In this prior system and method, an article 1 shown in FIG. 1A is formed packing an air-permeable bag-shaped hollow surface material 1a with a mixture of the filler material and a water reactive binder. Then, as shown in FIG. 1(a), this article 1 is positioned in a molding device 2 having a predetermined cavity. The molding device 2 has an upper and a lower molds 2a, 2b, and the article 1 is then clamped between those molds 2a, 2b. Then, as shown in FIG. 1(b), steam is introduced in the molding device 2 and passes through the inside thereof. The binder reacts with the steam so that the filler material is adhered each other and is adhered with the inner surface of the surface material. Thereby, a product 1′ having a predetermined shape is molded in one with the surface material without producing wrinkle on the surface material and curving the seam line of the surface material.
Such an article 1 is molded by use of a suction-type packing container shown in FIG. 2. The suction-type packing container 3 is composed of a lower part 3b and an upper part 3a that can seal the inside of the suction-type packing container 3, and as shown in FIG. 2, a bag-shaped hollow surface material 1a having an opening 1b is positioned inside the suction-type packing container 3. The lower part 3b has a suction port 4 connected to a suction pump and an entry port 5 for delivering a filler material T through this entry port 5. In order to make easy to deliver the filler material T to the inside of the surface material 1a, a funnel 6 is positioned such that the funnel 6 passes through the entry port 5 and comes into the inside of the surface material 1a through the opening 1b thereof. In this arrangement when the suction pump is driven, air inside the suction-type packing container 3 is evacuated and the inside of the suction-type packing container 3 is decompressed so that air is entered in the inside of the suction-type packing container 3 through the entry port 5 and the opening 1b via the funnel 6. When the filler material T is approached to the funnel 6, the filler material T is delivered by the airflow to the inside of the surface material 1a, and thereby the surface material 1a is packed with the filler material T.
As described above, it has been possible to easily pack a bag-shaped hollow surface material with a predetermined amount of a filler material.
According to this packing method, granular or fragmental waste of a scrapped surface material and a scrapped urethane foam can be recycled to manufacture a seat and an accessory used for an automobile.
It is desirable that a filler material should be stably delivered through the entry port of the suction-type packing container by use of airflow when a bag-shaped hollow surface material is packed with the filler material as described above. In order to achieve that the filler material is stably delivered through the entry port, it is necessary that the filler material should be mixed evenly with the airflow. If the filler material is concentrated locally in the airflow or if there is a mass of the filler material in the airflow, the entry port may be blocked so that the filler material cannot be delivered through the entry port.
In addition to this matter, if the density of the filler material in the airflow is changed, the filler material may be unevenly packed in the surface material so that the filler material is not stably adhered each other and with the inner surface of the surface material even though the filler material is premixed with a binder.
The present invention is made to solve those problems, and thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a filler material packing system and method capable of delivering a scattered filler material to the entry port.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a filler material packing system and method in which the filler material is delivered in a uniform density to the inside of a bag-shaped hollow surface material.
The other object of the present invention is to provide such a filler material packing system and method in which the filler material is stably delivered to the inside of the surface material.